The bill also includes a light-heavyweight clash between Belfast’s Ward and Dubliner Steve Collins Jr. Also in action is WBO European middleweight champion Luke Keeler, Cummings, KO king Lewis Crocker, Marco McCullough, Sean McComb and Steven Donnelly.

CARL FRAMPTON will turn nasty the moment he looks across the ring and sees Luke Jackson in the opposite corner.

He gets the chance to silence Jackson (16-0) when he defends his interim WBO featherweight crown against the Australian challenger at Belfast’s Windsor Park on Saturday August 18.

Jackson has angered Frampton suggesting he’s over the hill as a boxer and claimed he looks overweight in training.

That means an exciting night for 20,000 fans and viewers watching on BT Sport, but bad news for Jackson.

Frampton (25-1) said: “He has annoyed me a little bit, but not enough to take my mind off the game and be overly aggressive.

“He has annoyed me enough to wanna flatten him and put him out cold, properly.

“I haven’t knocked anybody out in a long time, but Luke Jackson is a guy who is going to get knocked out.”

Jackson, 33, has also teased Frampton over his amateur career claiming his experience in the London 2012 Olympics and other major championships betters the Belfast man’s achievements in the unpaid code.

Frampton added: “He keeps talking about his amateur career. Who give a f**k what he did as an amateur? He isn’t Vasyl Lomachenko.

“Let’s not forget he is based in Australia. If Australia sent a ten man team to box an international against Ireland they would get beat 10-0, and that’s a fact.

“His amateur career wasn’t even that good when you look at it.

“The reason Australia can send almost a full team to the Olympics is because they box Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

“It is a lot easier qualifying process compared to what Ireland and GB have to go through for the Olympics.

“This is professional boxing and it’s almost a different sport. He will see on the night.”

Also on the BT Sport televised bill Lineal heavyweight king Tyson Fury faces a step up when he tackles two-time world title challenger Francesco Pianeta.

FRANK WARREN IS delighted to announce that Showtime Sports will present Carl Frampton’s interim featherweight title defense and the second comeback fight of lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on Saturday, August 18 live from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Former two-division champion Frampton will defend his interim WBO Featherweight Title against undefeated Australian contender Luke Jackson on the pitch at Windsor Park, where an expected 30,000 fans will witness the first boxing event at the home of Northern Irish football. In the opening bout, former IBF, WBA and WBO Heavyweight World Champion Fury will square off against two-time heavyweight title challenger Francesco Pianeta in Fury’s second comeback fight after a two-and-a-half year layoff.

The 31-year-old Frampton (25-1, 14 KOs), who rolled back the years with an inspired performance to win the interim WBO belt against Nonito Donaire in April, will face the unbeaten Jackson as he looks to earn a second world title in one of boxing’s deepest divisions. With a victory, Frampton will target blockbuster showdowns with WBA World Champion Leo Santa Cruz, WBC World Champion Gary Russell Jr., and IBF World Champion Josh Warrington, all of whom have appeared on SHOWTIME platforms in 2018. The WBO’s interim champion is also in line to fight full titlist Oscar Valdez, who is recovering from surgery to repair a fractured jaw.

Jackson (16-0, 7 KOs) was the captain of the Australian boxing team at the 2012 London Olympics and has won 16 consecutive fights since turning pro in 2013. The 33-year-old is confident he can upset Frampton in front of his hometown fans and earn a title shot in the deep 126-pound division.

Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) returned to the ring in June with a victory over Sefer Seferi, an outmatched opponent who retired on his stool after four rounds. Southpaw Francesco Pianeta (35-4-1, 21 KOs) represents a significant step-up in opposition for the 29-year-old Manchester native. Prior to his nearly three-year layoff, the 6-foot-9 Fury established himself as the premier heavyweight boxer in the world by becoming the first man to defeat Wladimir Klitschko in more than 11 years—and by taking the IBF, WBA and WBO world title belts from the Ukrainian great in the process.

Pianeta (35-4-1, 21 KOs), a 6-foot-5 southpaw who fights out of Germany, has twice challenged for the heavyweight world title. Pianeta faced then-unified champion WladimirKlitschko in 2013 and lost in a bid for a secondary title against Ruslan Chagaev in 2015. A win over Fury would could put the 33-year-old Italian native back in the heavyweight title picture.

Cummings rival Keeler is also on the bill which includes a tremendous light-heavyweight clash between Belfast’s Ward and Dubliner Steve Collins Jr. Also in action are KO king Lewis Crocker and Marco McCullough. Sean McComb and Steven Donnelly also make their professional debuts.

CARL FRAMPTON is embroiled in a verbal clash with big fight rival Luke Jackson after the Australian teased him over their amateur achievements.

Frampton (25-1) defends his ‘interim’ WBO featherweight crown against Jackson (16-0) at Belfast’s Windsor Park on Saturday August 18 – the biggest show ever in the city promoter Frank Warren has called: “The boxing capital of Europe”.

Jackson, 33, captained Australia at the 2012 London Olympics, competed twice in the World amateur Championships and won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He said: “I’ve fought some very good guys as an amateur and I’ll be the first to say that as a professional I haven’t fought the guys Carl Frampton has fought.

“Carl Frampton hasn’t done what I did as an amateur. He never represented his country at the Olympic Games.”

Warren has told Belfast hero Frampton that a win in front of more than 20,000 fans and a huge BT Sport audience is likely to book a crack at IBF world champion, Josh Warrington.

But he is already in fighting mode after Jackson who was also a five times Australian amateur champion let loose with a verbal volley.

“I’m lucky it’s not amateur boxing then,” Frampton snapped back on Twitter after hearing of his opponent’s comments.

The two-weight world champion added: “Also, representing Australia in the Olympics is the equivalent of me having to be Co Antrim champion then beat the Isle of Man in a qualifier.”

Tasmanian Jackson has been in training for two weeks under Billy Hussein in Sydney and says he will leave no stone unturned before moving to Dubai for the next stage of his camp.

Frampton, 31, is fresh off a magnificent points win over Nonito Donaire, but Jackson is questioning the validity of that triumph.

He says: “I respect Carl and I watched his fights against Leo Santa Cruz. In the second fight he fought the wrong fight. He was trying too hard and it didn’t work.

“I watched a few rounds of the Donaire fight and is he is a good fighter, but he is finished. He is not the Donaire he once was.

“Nicholas Walters knocked out Donaire and I beat him in the amateurs. I am not saying I could beat Donaire, but you understand what I mean.

“I’ve been in there with fighters these guys have been in with. Amateur or professional it’s all hit and not get hit.”

Also on the bill, Lineal heavyweight king Tyson Fury faces a step up when he tackles two-time world title challenger Francesco Pianeta.

Cummings rival Keeler is also on the bill which includes a tremendous light-heavyweight clash between Belfast’s Steven Ward and Dubliner Steve Collins Jr. Also in action is KO king Lewis Crocker and Marco McCullough.